Dombrowski denies throwing program caused Thornburg injury

Boston Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski reportedly got short with reporters Tuesday for perpetuating the idea that reliever Tyler Thornburg's shoulder injury - which will likely hold him out of the Opening Day lineup - is due to the team's throwing program.

"It's not the throwing program, OK?" Dombrowski said, according to Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald. "I wish you (reporters) would just lay off of that, OK?"

Of course, the Boston media was just working with information it had gotten from Thornburg himself. Earlier this spring, he said the training regimen from his new employer was unlike any previous shoulder training he'd done before. Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald quoted Thornburg as saying, "As we were running through the shoulder program the first time, I was like, 'man, this is really long,' but my arm felt fine after the first one. Then I think it was a combo of increased throwing and those continual shoulder programs."

Red Sox skipper John Farrell sided with Dombrowski, saying that he would dismiss all claims that the shoulder program deserves any blame for the ailment. "To say it's the root cause, that's a little false," said the former pitcher and pitching coach. "That's a lot false. And very shortsighted."

Thornburg has been held to just 1 1/3 innings of work over two games this spring, allowing seven earned runs on nine hits and two walks while striking out two.

The 28-year-old right-handed reliever, who was acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers back in December in exchange for third baseman Travis Shaw, enjoyed a bit of a breakout with the Brewers last year. Over 67 innings, he struck out 90 batters and allowed fewer than one baserunner per inning.